Psychosocial Correlates of Moral Disengagement among In-School Adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria: Evidence from Parenting, Peer Pressure, and Self-Esteem (Published)
Moral disengagement enables adolescents to rationalise transgressive conduct without self-censure, yet its psychosocial correlates remain under-studied in Sub-Saharan African school settings. This cross-sectional study examined parenting, peer pressure, and self-esteem as correlates of moral disengagement among 288 in-school adolescents aged 12–20 years from six secondary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria. Participants completed the Moral Disengagement Scale, Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ), a 30-item peer-pressure measure, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Parenting responses were scored according to the PSDQ’s intended authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive subscales. All three parenting scores correlated positively with moral disengagement (rs = .22–.39, ps < .001), as did peer pressure (r = .19, p = .001), whereas self-esteem was unrelated at the bivariate level. The predictors jointly explained 24.3% of the variance in moral disengagement (adjusted R² = .229). In the multivariate model, authoritative-labelled (β = .44), authoritarian-labelled (β = .23), permissive-labelled (β = −.18), and self-esteem (β = −.23) scores made significant unique contributions, whereas peer pressure did not. HC3 robust estimation, 5,000-resample bootstrapping, influence diagnostics, and repeated split-half analyses confirmed the stability of this coefficient pattern. However, exploratory factor analysis failed to recover the intended parenting structure, and confirmatory factor analysis showed poor fit for both the theoretical three-factor model (CFI = .29, RMSEA = .20) and a one-factor alternative. Thus, although parenting responses were robustly associated with moral disengagement, the specific PSDQ subscale coefficients cannot confidently be interpreted as distinct parenting styles. Findings highlight the importance of culturally validated parenting measures and of examining family, peer, and individual correlates jointly in research on adolescent moral development.
Keywords: Parenting style, Peer Pressure, in-school adolescents; Nigeria, moral disengagement, self-esteem
Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles as Correlates of Students’ Tendency to Abuse Drugs in Rivers State, Southern Nigeria (Published)
The study investigated Authoritarian and Authoritative parenting styles and as correlates of student’s abuse of drugs in Rivers State, Nigeria. Three research questions and three corresponding null-hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted correlational design. A sample size of 400 SS I and SS II students drawn from the population of 22,413 secondary school students through simple and non-proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were used for the study. Two instruments used in the study were Parenting Style Scale (PSS) and Abuse of Drugs Inventory (ADI). The instruments were validated by three experts in Educational Measurement and Evaluation. The reliabilities of the instruments were determined using Cronbach Alpha techniques. The reliability coefficients obtained were 0.81, 0.77, 0.84 and 0.73 for Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive and Uninvolved Parenting Styles respectively and Abuse of Drugs inventory had a reliability coefficient of 0.79. Multiple Regression and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used in data analysis. The results revealed that Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles do not significantly correlate with students abuse of drugs. The conclusion drawn from this study is that parenting style had a significant joint contribution in determining the outcome of children’s abuse of drugs, while some parenting styles (e.g. authoritative and authoritarian) are negatively associated with abuse of drugs. Based on the results, recommendations were made, one of which was that parents should adopt authoritative parenting style in rearing their children as this has been shown to minimize the tendency of them to be involved in abuse of drugs.
Citation: Amadi U. and Chujor J. C. (2023) Authoritarian and Authoritative Parenting Styles as Correlates of Students’ Tendency to Abuse Drugs in Rivers State, Southern Nigeria, European Journal of Educational and Development Psychology, Vol.10, No.3, pp.70-81,
Keywords: Adolescents, Authoritarian, Authoritative, Drug Abuse, Parenting style